Partners in Excellence

APRIL 16, 2024

We spend 100’s of millions on SKO speakers, books, and training–all focused on doing the things that drive business, sales and marketing performance. We are inspired by thousands of articles, podcasts, and videos–each offering the same answers to what we have to do to be successful. (I

Top of Funnel 105

Top of Funnel Funnel Pipeline Exercises 105

Understanding the Sales Force

MARCH 25, 2024

You must pull out all the stops and sell your value without trying to win with low-margin, low-retention pricing. Lesson #2 – The Power of Meeting Decision Makers We stopped for lunch at the best restaurant in the village, inside the hotel at which we have stayed more than sixty times in the past four years.

Decision Maker 182

Decision Maker Hotels Cancellation Travel 182

Mr. Inside Sales

JANUARY 7, 2023

You know you should do this, but have you? If not, do it this week! He said that football moves so fast that: “If you get into a situation and have to think about what to do next, it’s already too late.”. If not, make a commitment and do it. Never stop learning, critiquing and getting better. Guaranteed.

Face-to-face 258

Face-to-face Guarantee Gatekeeper Decision Maker 258

No More Cold Calling

NOVEMBER 26, 2020

Because what I’m most grateful for—this year and every year—is human connection. Thanksgiving Day is our official kickoff to the holiday season, and never in modern history has the world needed a reason to celebrate like we all do right now. We feel disconnected from our friends, colleagues, and many times, our family.

Cold Calling 358

Cold Calling Referrals Conversion Video 358

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 6, 2024

Too often, there is an alignment challenge between what buyers need and what sellers do. We seem to be on diverging paths, and this creates problems for both buyers and sellers. What don’t buyers need from sellers? We always seem to lead with our products and focus our conversations on those.

Buyer 122

Buyer Incentives Incentive Discount 122

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 14, 2024

We see a lot of uncertainty. We struggle with the idea, is there light at the end of the tunnel? How do we survive (though some real leaders are asking themselves how we thrive.) How do we survive (though some real leaders are asking themselves how we thrive.) This is impossible.

Face-to-face 114

Face-to-face Lead Rank Lead Scoring Churn 114

Mr. Inside Sales

DECEMBER 9, 2023

Do you remember Dicken’s book, A Christmas Carol ? Here’s what happened: I was on my way to consult with a new client one day when I stopped at Starbucks for a cup of coffee. Hey, we used to work together!” I asked him what he was up to and this is when the chill hit me. As I did, I knew exactly what it was.

Face-to-face 220

Face-to-face Inside Sales Gatekeeper Decision Maker 220

Mr. Inside Sales

JUNE 26, 2023

Do you enjoy inspirational, motivational, and wisdom-packed quotes? Some of these quotes include: “We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. Some of these quotes include: “We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. They always seem to make the day brighter for me.

Face-to-face 198

Face-to-face Gatekeeper Decision Maker Licensing 198

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 10, 2022

The company that provides us with cyber-insurance required that our entire team watch a series of 21 training videos to make us more aware of how hackers operate, how easy it is to be hacked, and what we must do differently in order to protect our data, privacy and accounts.

Insurance 321

Insurance Insurance Outbound Video 321

Mr. Inside Sales

MAY 11, 2023

I wonder what I can sell that’s easier than this?” Here’s the solution: Rather than try to go from negative to positive (very hard to do), it’s better to go from negative to neutral first and then on to positive. It is what it is, and you can’t change it. Then ask yourself what went wrong? What did you do wrong?

Face-to-face 249

Face-to-face Call-back Gatekeeper Decision Maker 249

Mr. Inside Sales

JULY 24, 2023

Though we’re sometimes not aware of our tone and demeanor, other people do feel its impact, and they react to it as well. A few years back, my wife and I were on vacation in Venice, Italy, and we were having trouble navigating our way back to St. I knew he did, so I said, “Sure you do. How do I get there?” Mark’s Square.

Face-to-face 234

Face-to-face Gatekeeper Call-back Inside Sales 234

The Pipeline

APRIL 13, 2021

It’s no secret we exist to consume, choose your lens, B2B or B2C , the system survives on consumption. And so, it is with prospecting and selling, we need to shed old habits to allow for new. If you are to develop new skills, it really is time to stop many that do not serve your goals. By Tibor Shanto. Start Here.

B2C 210

B2C Consumer B2B System 210

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 29, 2023

In our house we seem to have the ability to make a lot of trash. The only thing enjoyable about trash days is that Dinger loves to “do the trash” with me. Those who used to cold call but have since stopped, forgot how and sucked at cold calling when they were doing it. That’s why they stopped!

Meeting 193

Meeting Cold Calling Outbound Inbound 193

No More Cold Calling

APRIL 16, 2020

Why do you trust some people and not others? Trust is a word we use indiscriminately, but we do not trust indiscriminately. How do we define trust? How do we get our arms around such an emotional word? Who do we trust for health information? Their pipelines are recession-proof.

Face-to-face 434

Face-to-face Call-back Cold Calling Webinar Metrics 434

The Pipeline

AUGUST 27, 2020

This week we have a We The North edition of The Scrum, we welcome Darryl Praill, Chief Marketing Officer at VanillaSoft. To what extent do CRMs and Marketing Automation tools help in achieving the results? To what extent do CRMs and Marketing Automation tools help in achieving the results?

VanillaSoft 283

VanillaSoft Inside Sales Analytics Sales Coaching 283

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 29, 2024

We were talking about his prospecting challenges. ” We talked about some of his strategies. He researched others, understanding their roles and what their companies did, creating personalized emails. He tried to connect what he learned they were doing with his prospecting efforts. How do you know if he cares?

Ideal Customer Profile 119

Ideal Customer Profile Face-to-face Trade Show Prospecting 119

No More Cold Calling

DECEMBER 6, 2019

STOP Cold Calling. STOP Cold Calling. Cold callers don’t just bother us at dinner anymore, and it’s no longer just the damn phone that we resent. STOP Cold Calling. You might think you’ve been able to avoid sounding like a telemarketer, but that is exactly what you’re doing, and your prospect knows it.

Cold Calling 365

Cold Calling Social Media Telemarketing Referrals 365

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 25, 2024

We know buying cycles are getting longer. Or we have other excuses. But perhaps we should look inwardly. Is there anything we can change to reduce these? And if we could, what would it mean? We focus on the things important to us, presenting our solutions and getting the buyer to choose us.

Customer 102

Customer Buying Cycle Buyer Sales Cycle 102

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 25, 2024

We seem to overlook the questions, “How do we know what ‘Top of Funnel’ we need? How do we shift that in our favor?” ” We cannot focus exclusively on Top of Funnel. What drives our Top of Funnel requirements is what happens in the funnel itself.

Top of Funnel 106

Top of Funnel Funnel Sales Qualified Lead Leads 106

SalesProInsider

AUGUST 18, 2023

That’s what I covered in the last tip. This tip is about what we should do instead, which I call the Stop, Drop, and Roll. Drop – Drop our assumptions, our agenda, our emotion, and our ego as we listen. Here’s how a Stop, Drop, and Roll sounds. That’s it. Pause again. Then pause.

Opportunity 115

Opportunity Intent Objections Face-to-face 115

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 9, 2024

It’s trite to say we live in worlds of growing complexity. Workloads seem to sky rocket as do demands on our time. But…… To often, I think much of the challenge we face is self inflicted. We tend to make things more complex or more difficult than they need be. Define and viciously focus on your ICP.

Ideal Customer Profile 119

Ideal Customer Profile Face-to-face CRM Opportunity 119

SalesProInsider

APRIL 30, 2024

Sorry to hear about the Packer’s loss last weekend, what was your highlight of the season?” “How What do you think about those questions? How to Stop the Small Talk Now, here’s some straight talk…if you don’t like small talk, don’t talk small! What have you found most useful so far? Then what?

Sports 62

Sports Conversion Networking Travel 62

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 29, 2024

He opened with, “We see this challenge…… impacting organizations like yours. We think you can be doing better……” Intrigued, it was an important issue (it always is for small businesses), I responded, “What causes you to say we face that issue and can do better?”

Conversion 81

Conversion Microsoft Face-to-face Google 81

SalesProInsider

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

But “personal” — or a lack of it — is what I see as a barrier to higher conversions for advisors who provide a very personal service. The Dangers of Depersonalization in Sales Conversations What do I mean? When we personalize the conversation, we allow them to be more connected to what you’re saying.

Conversion 126

Conversion Prospecting Compensation Examples 126

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 18, 2024

As we spoke, it struck me how we revel in these questions. Customers asking us about the product capabilities, drilling deeply into what the products and solutions do. These are the discussions we strive to get since it is all about us and what we sell. But are they asking us the right questions?

Customer 121

Customer Revelation Buying Cycle Lead Rank 121

SalesProInsider

FEBRUARY 8, 2023

What’s your mindset around follow-up efforts for reconnecting with prospects who have stopped responding? What about those who haven’t followed through on the actions that they said they would? Do you get into a mindset of negativity? Do you feel frustrated that you must keep chasing them? Why courtesy?

Follow-up 133

Follow-up Prospecting How To Call-back 133

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 9, 2024

We reflect back on movies like “Terminator,” worrying about AI and robots taking over the world. Daily, we see examples of various forms of AI based plagiarism, some unintended, some malicious and intentional. It’s increasingly difficult to discern what’s real and what’s fake.

Face-to-face 117

Face-to-face Analysis Intent Coaching 117

Partners in Excellence

MAY 1, 2024

For my entire career, “we” are addicted to busyness. We seem to measure our worth by how we fill our calendars and that pleasant feeling of exhaustion at 10PM when we have finished a busy day. We revel in our ability to multitask, even though the data shows that multitasking makes us accomplish less.

Revelation 103

Revelation Call-back Cancellation Meeting 103

Mereo

FEBRUARY 28, 2024

We at Mereo spoke with expert Tim Ohai , a leading growth consultant and founder of Kupu Solutions who formerly served in leadership roles at Workday, Shell Oil and Pennzoil, about what leaders like yourself can do to foster a healthier business culture in 2024. I’ll be blunt: Stop de-motivating your teams.

Lead Rank 77

Lead Rank Motivation Lead Scoring Groups 77

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 8, 2024

And other data showing 1000-1400 touches per opportunity (Thank goodness we can solve this with AI, easily hitting 1000s of touches a day…… tongue firmly planted in cheek.) ” But, we shouldn’t be shocked or surprised. We’ve created the majority of circumstances surrounding this.

Top of Funnel 109

Top of Funnel Face-to-face Data Buying Cycle 109

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 12, 2023

One of the biggest mistakes I see sales managers, particularly new managers, make is the view, “I can do it better myself!” The rationale is, “We need to win the deal, we need to hit our goals, I can do it better myself!” And they don’t do this by “doing it better themselves.”

Maximizer 122

Maximizer Coaching Sales Management Closing 122

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

On the selling side we would have perfectly structured steps like Qualification, Needs Identification, Solution Presentation, Closing. The thinking being, as long as we stayed aligned with the customers’ process we could help them with their buying process, maximizing our ability to win. They would often get lost.

Buyer 122

Buyer Face-to-face B2B Up-Sell 122

SalesProInsider

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

What do you want to do differently? Do you want to: Create more outreach to new clients? Do you want to be a better advisor? Doing those things differently means creating new habits. Doing those things differently means creating new habits. The way and the how we do things.

Journal 133

Journal Face-to-face Exercises Energy 133

Partners in Excellence

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

What business problem is your customer solving? If I pose this question to sellers, the responses I get are usually about what their products do. To effectively engage our customers in business conversations, we have to understand the and be able to talk to them about their business problem first. How do we measure it?

Customer 106

Customer Face-to-face Enterprise Enterprise 106

Partners in Excellence

AUGUST 28, 2023

For well over a decade, we’ve seen huge amounts of data directly or indirectly demonstrating the impact of the inherent messiness of buying. Whether it’s data Morten Hansen presents in collaboration, the data presented in The Jolt Effect, we see 60-75% of internal change management/buying projects fail. They start/stop.

Buying Cycle 98

Buying Cycle Buyer Exercises Data 98

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

Fast forwarding to current times, based on how we engage our customers, we demonstrate a similar vanity. We think our customer care about us–they obsess about our companies, our products, and how great we are. They don’t care about how great we are, our logo slides, our “leading products.”

Engineering 110

Engineering Up-Sell Lead Rank Lead Scoring 110

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 25, 2024

We don’t have a set agenda, we talk about what we are seeing, usually it’s me whining about the state of professional selling. I’m afraid too many people will latch onto that concept and miss the real point of this post which is the revenue/growth potential we lose. Think about that for a moment.

Competition 109

Competition Customer Buying Cycle Vendor 109